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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Hewlett Packard Establishes Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Global Center of Excellence

02/02/2021
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company plans to establish its Chippewa Falls campus as its Global Center of Excellence for High Performance Compute Manufacturing. The company will invest roughly $22 million in improvements while creating 30 new jobs in Chippewa County, Wisconsin.

HPE acquired Chippewa Falls-based Cray Inc., in 2019 as a leader in high performance computing. As a result of this acquisition HPE now has 486 full-time employees, along with about 200 contingent workers at multiple sites in Chippewa Falls.

“I want to thank Governor Evers and the WEDC for helping us strengthen our presence in Wisconsin,” said Pete Ungaro, General Manager of High Performance Computing and Mission Critical Solutions at HPE. “Cray and HPE have a long history in the Chippewa Valley, and we’re excited to grow this rapidly expanding part of HPE’s business in the region through our HPC Manufacturing Center of Excellence. The Enterprise Zone designation is an important first step in this initiative.”

Under the plan approved by the board and submitted to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance for review, the Chippewa Falls location would be designated as an Enterprise Zone eligible for up to $8 million in performance-based tax credits over the next five years as the company retains its current workforce of almost 500 high-paying jobs.

“This is an important first step toward establishing Chippewa Falls as HPE’s Global Center of Excellence and it reaffirms the great relationship our state has had with HPE and Cray over the many years they’ve been in Chippewa Falls,” said Governor Tony Evers. “It sets us on a course toward even greater growth, bringing more family supporting jobs, expanding opportunities, and bolstering economic activity not only in the Chippewa Valley area, but across our state.”

“There is no better place for the Global Center of Excellence than Wisconsin, which is already home to numerous world-class manufacturers and technology innovators,” added Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes. “We look forward to HPE’s renewed investment in Wisconsin.”

HPE’s presence in the Chippewa Valley has a significant impact on Wisconsin suppliers, state officials said. The company prioritizes sourcing as much as possible within 100 miles of the facility, from small businesses to large corporations. During the last fiscal year, the company spent roughly $12 million with Wisconsin suppliers of materials alone, a figure not including service providers, construction firms, utilities, and more.

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